Getting ready for Christmas

so here's our big bundle! Aidan's only 10 weeks and looks like such a little man! we've managed to make our first visit to PA (and about to make our 2nd this weekend followed by another after xmas.) he's witnessed his first snowfall in both pa and md, sat on santa's lap (who looked like an actual santa--the hair and beard were real!), and survived living with us! not bad for a 10 week old! he's been mumbling now for about a month, i'm just waiting for the day that he actually answers me back. his mouth and tongue move so much when he wants to talk...oohs and ahhs and babbling just come out with an excited smile and laugh!

the only bad part is that i've gone back to work :( i went back after 8 weeks. i didn't miss it while i was out and i still don't. it would be great to stay home and raise our son, but it's just not possible right now. after, actually before he was born, i was thinking about moving back to pa, but now, it's constantly in the back of my mind. it's probably not in the near future...we've got to see how things go and what would happen if tim would transfer, plus with the crappy housing market, i think we'd have trouble selling the house. so we'll just keep working on it and see where life takes us...for now Aidan is 100% of my life!

Back Online

After 10 weeks, here we are. it's gone by fast, but at the same time it seems so long ago. we ended up having a c-section. after being induced and 15 hours of labor, they decided to do the surgery. by then i was more than ready. aidan was 9 lbs. 8 oz. with a 15 cm. noggin'. so he wasn't gonna come out any other way!

5 more days to go and then life changes!!

there hasn't been any change since last week, so it's inevitable! If nothing happens between now and Wed. we go to the hospital wednesday night and induction begins thursday morning.

so hopefully he will arrive sometime thurs. i hope it doesn't go into friday!

3 weeks to go....officially

here are some updated sonogram pics of buddha. we're still doing well and just waiting for things to start moving along. i've started to diallate, a little, but that could be that way for weeks.

my second home....

when they say you gotta go- you gotta go! pregnancy has definitely kept me in tune with the knowledge of bathroom locations! i have become quite acqainted with the various bathrooms of the area. wherever we go, i could tell you where the closest bathrooms are! pretty much any store in the general area!!! when in doubt, that's where i'm at lately! even at work, thank goodness i sit next to the door going out to the hallway...i'm thinking about moving my desk into there! i think there are only two things i won't miss about being pregnant--having to constantly pee and not being able to breathe!! :)

Coming Soon....

My Foot

Up close of my nose and lips

buddha's doing well...right now he's breech and has until the end of the month to flip the right way or else it's a c-section for mama! needless to say i'll be disappointed if this happens, but there's not much i can do. we're scheduled for another sonogram at the end of the month to check his growth and position...we shall see what happens!

Week 30--only 10 more to go!

we finally finished the room a few weeks ago! it's such a relief to have it finished...now it's time for the rest of it.

here's a pic of a gift from my aunt and cousin--they know how to dress a baby the right way! :)

My Birthday Cake

Me and my pregoness

here's a pic of me and all my pregoness! 6 months and counting!

Turning 30 and being pregnant!

Well i've reached the milestone of the big "30"! everyone keeps asking how i feel about being 30, my answer-not any different. for me turning 25 was worse! i had a very hard time with that one! so being 30 and prego isn't so bad and i had a wonderful surprise party thrown for me.

Belly movements!

For the first time we were able to see my belly doing some crazy movements last night! i've been feeling him kick and move all around for a few weeks now, but last night was the first time tim was able to feel and see him! i was laying on the couch searching the web when i started to feel him move constantly...so i lifted my shirt and my belly was just jumping all over the place. there was even a little wave action going where i could see it go across my stomach...very strange but entertaining to watch! :)

Buddha's Room

Well I finished the drawings on buddha's walls and this past weekend and my mom and sisters came to visit so they helped get the painting started....it's not quite finished and there is alot more yet to do, but here's the progress so far...hope buddha likes Pooh! or we're in trouble!

Ultrasound Redo

We had the ultrasound re-done this morning, it was 100% better than the first time and the tech was absolutely wonderful!

hopefully these pictures will come through ok...we were able to see that yes, it is a boy and even have a picture to prove it-although i really don't want to post that one on internet! so hopefully you'll be able to see these ones. we got alot of pics this time, nose, mouth, feet, profile, face, arms-everything....and everything is accounted for and in the right places!

although i felt a little guilty about complaining to the place about the first visit, we were so glad i did send the "complaint letter" or we would have missed out on this experience...

well, i (with a huge help from amanda) wrote a letter to shady grove radiology (the people that did the sonogram) explaining how we thought our visit was inappropriate. basically, since the tech didn't explain anything as she was doing the test (she barely spoke a few words during the whole thing), and didn't show us the the baby (as she said she was going to do), or how she knew it was a boy, and didn't explain the pictures that we received, they called and offered to do the sonogram over again. so we're getting another one done on tuesday. they also said they were going to have us back anyway because the report on the spine didn't come through, but i think this may be an excuse to cover their ass with the insurance company on why they have to do a second one. so this one will be with the med. director and his top sonographer. so we're pretty happy that we'll finally get the experience that everyone else had on their first visit.

19.5 Weeks

we had our ultrasound done this morning! they must have taken 30 different pictures, but we only got to bring home 3. everything looks normal, 2 legs, 2 arms, fingers, toes....the only thing i didn't like was the tech that actually did the ultrasound...she didn't speak until one of us asked her a question. and she wasn't very personable. but tim was able to watch the monitor and i could see it a little from the side and ----IT'S A BOY!

we're very excited and now tim wants to go out and buy a steeler outfit!! he'll be here just in time for football season :)

Not much happening (17 weeks prego)

i went home this past weekend to pick up a bridesmaids dress (and thank god it still fits!) and my sister showed me some pics. here's charlie batch signing autographs at belle vernon high school. my sister (the little one) has a girl in her elementary school who is sick, so they had a benefit for her. the steelers played the dad's of some of the kids. kenzie was able to get charlie's autograph. unfortunately, i forget who else was there.

things are the same here...i started feeling pretty good and i thought---finally some relief, but then i woke up this morning feelin' like crap...but once i ate some lunch i felt a little better. so hopefully it was just a small step backwards. i'm getting pretty excited though, in about 2 1/2 weeks we'll find out what we're having (if buddha decides to cooperate). i'm still going back and forth on whether or not i really want to know. i do and i don't, either way it doesn't matter to me what we have as long as things go well and everyone comes out happy and healthy. tim on the other hand really wants to know! he want to know whether to buy a pink steeler outfit or a black and gold steeler outfit! he's been looking since we found out we were pregnant. being prego can be exhausting and not just sleepy, but the mental part. i'm confused, i can't stay focused, i have no determination to do anything! i've even gotten a little sick of reading baby mags and looking on websites, and receiving info. there is so much out there and lately, i could care less! i just want to find clothes that fit :) it's worse than shopping for regular clothes!

Our monthly doctor's appointment was today and it went very well. My blood work came back with good results and the heartbeat is in the range that it should be (peaking between 145 and 160) and buddha was nice enough to give me a wonderful surprise--it kicked! I didn't feel it, but it could be heard on the doppler. It sounded like someone taking a needle across a record. It didn't last very long, and my first thought was that some type of gastrointestinal thing was going on down there! But as soon as it happened the doc said it was a kick. Absolutely amazing! So I go back again in 4 weeks for the regular visit and then the week after that we get our first ultrasound. Hopefully we will be able to tell the sex of the baby. I keep going back and forth on whether I want to know or not. I don't want to say yes, cause with my luck it would be the wrong position to tell! So we'll just have to wait and see!

Our carpet was also installed over the weekend! I wanted to just roll around on it! It's so nice to have real carpet under your feet--it was so soft and comfy! Next on the list--the deck, then maybe we could actually have people over to do some grillin!

So it's been a while since I posted, but we've been busy. We've had something to do for the past 3 weekends and we have something to do for the next 5 weekends! On top of those events, we're getting new carpeting put in (finally!!) at the end of this week and a new deck as soon as the permits go through. I am looking forward to both of those big projects as I have been since we've moved into this house! We'll finally be able to enjoy being outside with a safe place to sit!

As for Buddha, he/she is doing fine so far...still making me dry heave, and i'm not so patiently waiting for that to go away! but other than that, same as before..the next dr. appt. is on wednesday morning so i'm sure i'll be posting again. i'm hoping the next appt. after that will be a sonogram! after the carpet is installed, i'll start getting things drawn on the walls and ready for painting them (we're doing pooh) so i'm drawing characters on the walls.

Winter return

So at the beginning of the week it was 70 degrees, sunny and i was even wearing just a t-shirt and jeans to work....and then yesterday came the winter wonderland yet again! It was raining when i got up and never stopped the entire day of work. But working in Baltimore and living in Fredneck are two different things! By 2:00 i got a phone call saying there was already 2 inches of snow in Fredneck, so that was my clue to get some work done and get my butt outta there! It was like driving into a different world...rain, rain, rain, and then i started to see cars just covered in snow driving in the opposite direction. 20 miles from home, i basically drove right into a snow globe. it was very strange. and those last 20 miles took me over an hour until i reached my snow covered door! i think they took the groundhog out of his hole a little too soon, either that or he needs to be replaced. i'm ready for spring!

as for buddha, we're doing well. we go back the first week of april for our next appointment and hopefully everything will still be where it's supposed to be. it's very strange to think of having some little creature inside of you when you're not showing and there's really no way for others to know. although i'm already wearing some of the pants! the maternity pants are a wonderful invention! i may just wear them when i am not prego! it's like wearing comfy pants all day long! plus there's no feelings of movement yet, you just know it's there and that's about it.

i won't say the gagging has stopped, cause it hasn't! but it's tapered off a little. i made the mistake of saying a few mornings ago- "today's the first time i haven't gagged in 3 weeks!" only to made a big, fat liar about a half hour later when there i was with my head in my trashcan trying oh so hard to be quiet!

Heartbeat

We had our second doctor's appointment today. We were able to hear the heartbeat for the first time! It was amazing! Crazy to hear something like that inside of yourself!
The doc said everything sounds good and we go back in 4 weeks to do it again. Routine blood pressure check, urine (fun), heartbeat, and i think blood work again, but i'm not sure about that one. Today's blood work was a ridiculous amount- 6 tubes, and she wasn't stingy about filling them either!

oh the days of gagging have continued! i may start a list of places it happens.

• bathroom- check! this applies to ANY bathroom ANYWHERE! home, work, wherever. I had to go Delaware for work today, that didn't bother buddha, gagged in the bathroom of a historical society!
• grocery store- check! we all know this story
• work- check! not just the bathroom, at my cubicle too! in both offices! it's not easy trying to be quiet when this happens!
• car- check!
• parking garage- check! this goes along w/ the Delaware trip.

i'm sure i'll be adding to the list as the days go by! hopefully it won't last too long!

tomorrow's an exciting day- we go to try and hear the heartbeat. hopefully we will have good news!

A little prego complaining

ok so i shouldn't complain too much because the whole prego thing has been going better than some stories I've heard. but i'm now questioning why people go through this more than once!

i've been doing well, nauseous pretty much on a daily basis, but it's only once kept me home from work-other times it's happened on the weekend so i just layed around.

i decided to stop at the grocery store on my way home last night. no big deal to the normal person, but apparently it did not agree with the little buddha! i only made it about 3 aisles into the store when the overwhelming urge to gag came over me. for no apparent reason, i'm standing in the spaghetti aisle dry-heaving. thank god no one was in the same aisle! i can just imagine someone watching the secruity cameras praying that they don't have to announce "clean-up in aisle 3". so a few gags later and with extremely watery eyes, i made it to the frozen food section, grabbed some lunch items for work and got myself into a check-out lane---all the while praying the urge doesn't overtake me and hoping i make it outside first if it does!

i made it to the car and home (thank goodness the store is only a few blocks away!) with no events! but the groceries only made it the foyer steps before i had to run to the bathroom and put my head in the sink! not to be gross, but all this times were just heaving with nothing coming out, so needless to say it is not very satisfying to be doing this with no resolution!

the same thing happened throughtout the evening a couple more times and then again this morning. so driving with me to work were my usual bag of saltines, my ginger ale, and now my trusty towel-just in case!


for all of those that this has happened to before--i feel your pain! my stomach muscles have not received a workout like that in a while!!! if i end up doing this for the next few weeks, i believe i'll have a six-pack ab workout to sell!